A growing body of research has shown that there are important links between certain psychiatric disorders and health symptom reporting. Two disorders in particular (posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and major depression) have been the most widely implicated to date, and this association has sometimes been used to explain the occurrence of ill-defined medical problems and increased somatic symptoms in certain groups, most recently Gulf War veterans. Structured psychiatric diagnostic interviews were used to examine the presence of major psychiatric (axis I) disorders and their relation to health symptom reporting in a well-characterized, stratified subset of Gulf War veterans and a non-Gulf-deployed veteran comparison group. Rates of most psychiatric disorders were substantially lower than national comorbidity estimates, consistent with prior studies showing heightened physical and emotional well-being among active-duty military personnel. Rates of PTSD and major depression, however, were significantly elevated relative to the veteran comparison group. The diagnosis of PTSD showed a small but significant association with increased health symptom reports. However, nearly two-thirds of Gulf Ss reporting moderate to high health symptoms had no axis I psychiatric diagnosis.